Thursday, June 15, 2006

the mysteries of discharge

Last weekend I worked with discharge for two days: not nearly enough time to explore the vagaries of this process. The people who took the five-day class had more time to play around with both bleach and thiox (not simultaneously, of course) and discover what worked and what didn't. It is simply amazing how different the same fabric looks when discharged in bleach vs thiox or discharge paste. You never know what is under the black and how it will look when you remove the black dye. Shirt #1,below. Helene Davis is selling these and wanted to know how they discharged, so I tied it with rubber bands and threw it into a thiox bath at QSDS. It turned out so gorgeous that somebody bought it before it was even washed. Notice the pale beige of the discharged areas. Since I was out a shirt, Helene gave me another one in its stead, which I wore while it was black. Tonight,at home, bitten by the discharge bug, I decided to take a break from packing/organizing and throw the replacement black shirt into a thiox bath at home. I did a stitched resist and discovered that to see it, I have to wear the shirt inside out. BUT look! A lovely shade of light olive green, with black where the stitching was. Olive! The shirt was black. Same supplier as shirt #1. What excitement! Now I wish I had another one to try. You just never know what you are going to get - and it is always an adventure. But you do need to wear a respirator while you are working with the discharge agents.

8 comments:

Gerrie said...

I am so loving the discharge technique. At our latest High Fiber diet meeting, one of the artists had discharged a gorgeous design of a tree branch with a full moon glowing behind it. I was in awe.

Judy said...

Thiox??? What is that, Rayna? Will we be playing with this stuff at Campbell? Can older black shirts be used in this process? It would seem so, but I don't know the first thing about this, so you tell me.

Deb Hardman said...

My sister did some discharging on black fabric, placing leaves on top then spraying a diluted bleach mix on top. It made neat leaf shapes, then she appliqued leaves on top, off to the side for a shadow effect. I think she saw it on Simply Quilts. I've no idea who the originator was, but the quilts she's made have been beautiful. I've only done a little discharging, but want to play more with it. It is very intriguing.

Rayna said...

You have to make sure you put anything you bleach in anti-chlor or the fabric will weaken and tear or get holes in it. Ask me how I know. And Deb,with bleach you need a gas mask - not just a dust mask.
Especially spraying it! Tell your sister to be careful.

No discharge planned for Campbell -you'll have your hands full with soy wax batik and who knows what else, Judy.

Anonymous said...

Hi
Were you in Jannette's class? So was I, here are some shots that I took...

http://www.lysrian.com/thumbview.aspx?dir=images/Art/Vanishing_Act

lysrian

Anonymous said...

Hi
Were you in Janette's Class? So was I, here are some photos that I took while there...

http://www.lysrian.com/thumbview.aspx?dir=images/Art/Vanishing_Act

lysrian

Anonymous said...

Hi
Were you in Janette's Class? So was I, here are some photos that I took while there...

Vanishing Act

lysrian

Anonymous said...

sorry for the duplicates!

soup weather in June and a little more

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